Post Apocalyptic Eberron

The Apocalypse occurred 1,000 years ago in Eberron.

The following is a summary of what happened over the last few sessions:

Your party (a.k.a., The Outsiders) met up with their old friend Jon the cleric of Pelor in Overlook and headed back to the portal to the shadowfell located under the Happy Beggar poorhouse. Luckily you did not have to fight the wraiths that killed the NPC Reniss when you entered the room with the portal. Gallindan figured out that the wraiths have to be released from the portal with a command phrase. Thus you entered the portal and ended up on the outskirts of the mercenary settlement of Umbraforge, which consists of an 80 foot tower, arcane foundary, several forges, markets, slave pens, mercenary camps, and training grounds. The population of Umbraforge is about 2000 (equivalent to a small town), and it consists of all sorts of different races including natives to the shadowfell like shadar-kai and dark ones, and also orcs, goblinoids, kobolds, ogres, trolls, lizardfolk, and a dozen other monstrous races of the world. As you started to sneak down to get a better look you were accosted by some dark one guards on patrol and they assumed that you were mercenaries from the camp and warned you not to leave the camp again or next time you would be attacked. So you guys walked into Umbraforge and started to inquire about Modra and Umbraforge. After a while, and a few combat encounters, you discovered that Umbraforge is ruled by a shadar-kai name Sarshan, who sells arms, mercenaries, and is in the process of creating beasts and humanoids infused with arcane power from the shadowfell and elemental chaos. Sarshan resides in the tower with his shadar-kai and dark one personal guards. Apparently, Modra was working for Sarshan and betrayed him. Sarshan turned down a deal with Tusk to sell arms and information about the passages under Bordrin’s Watch. Modra sold Tusk the arms and info anyway and Sarshan is looking to kill him in revenge. You also discovered that Modra is planning to sabotage the
foundry in the hopes that it will cause a big explosion and destroy the tower killing Sarshan. Therefore, you guys went to the foundry and surprised Modra in the process of sabotaging it. Modra released a huge death boar from a vat and then Modra and his shadowgoblin minions attacked. The party had a slow start, but quickly dispatched the minions and then Modra. The best part of the whole encounter was when the death boar charged at Jon, jumped over a stream of hot lava, and tried to bull rush him (Jon was on the edge of the other side of the lava stream). Jon, the 170 pound (and not very strong) cleric of Pelor was inspired by his god and a surge of strength allowed him to push the boar into the lava stream! Roast pig anyone? His new nickname is “wrestles with pigs” (Kevin Costner would be so proud), lol. After the combat you guys took Modra’s head to the tower and met Sarshan who was happy and asked you to join his mercenaries. You declined, but asked for safe passage back to Overlook. Sarshan said you could leave, and that was the end of the session.

A blog for your campaign

April 19, 2009

After the battle with the cave troll your party was pretty low on attack powers and decided to take an extended rest in the Shrine to Moradin. When attempting to rest you were attacked by a group of orcs, which you quickly slaughtered. Your next attempt at an extended rest was successful and you regained your full strength. The party headed out again to search for the Nexus with urgency (BTW Mark it’s not a hair product, lol!) The next door the party opened entered into a giant room approximately 100’ x 100’ with a 20’ diameter metal “screw-like” object stretching from the floor to the ceiling 100’ above. Two steaming pipes entered the room and disappeared within some stone around the base of the “screw”. Around the room, stone catwalks and stairs ascended up to a platform 80’ above the floor where a control panel was located. Six different passages entered into the room on the catwalks from various locations and at various elevations. The dwarf paladin, Kalad, shouted that this was the Nexus and that you must get to the top to activate the self destruction system. As your group started up the catwalks, orcs and orogs entered from passages above you onto the catwalks. A huge battle followed that lasted about 20 rounds and consisted of heroic fighting from each member of the party. I will not go into all of the details, but clever use of your powers, especially the “hands of the grave” (not sure if it is the correct name) zone by Galinndan, and Athalus’s power that allows him to shoot at each enemy that moves within 5 squares of him, you guys were able to kill/render ineffective approximately 50 orc minions. It definitely had the feel of blasting away stormtroopers. Besides helping with the slaughtering of minions, Arkosian and Strategem played key roles in taking out the orogs and their leader Tusk. In my opinion, the coolest thing was when Stategem used an at-will power and pushed an orog off a catwalk (yes, he actually failed his save), and he fell 40 feet. In the end, it was a long and fun encounter that the party did very well on. It ended with Galinndan and Kalad activating the Nexus which caused metal doors to slide down in front of all the passages entering into the room and it released boiling water which filled the room at a rate of 10’ per round. The party was able to escape by climbing up a ladder to an escape hatch in the ceiling.

May 4, 2009

After the defeat of Tusk and his minions the party returned to Overlook, which was one days travel. Upon arrival the party went to the Overlook Council and requested payment for completing the quest at the monastery, and extra payment for performing the Farstrider’s quest (entering the vents and locating the nexus to secure the tunnels under the mountains). Your party figured that since you completed the Farstrider’s quest you were due the reward. Unfortunately, the Council did not see things the same way and they paid your party only the agreed upon amount of 1000 gp, and they promised a victory feast after the host of orogs, orcs, etc. outside of the walls of Bordrin’s Watch had been defeated or dispersed due to lack of leadership. Word of your success spread through the city within a day and you heard rumors that your unnamed group was being referred to as the Victors, Outsiders, and Mercenaries (mainly by dwarves, and due to the fact that they considered it rude to ask for the reward promised to the Farstrider’s). You also heard rumors of the defeat of the Tusk’s armies at Bordrin’s Watch.

The next thing that happened was that your party was attacked by another gang of “Lost Ones”. After you defeated them, you learned that besides wanting revenge for killing the other Lost Ones they were hired to kill you and retrieve a brass key (your group found the key on the body of a dark creeper in the vents). Their employer was someone named Modra. Next you guys struggled to find out information about Modra, and discovered that diplomacy and streetwise would be good skills for someone in the group to get trained in. In the end you met Reniss (a female, half-elf, ranger who wields two scimitars-though not very well) who was also looking for Modra because he was somehow linked to the death of her sister Jen (a member of the Farstriders). Reniss explained that she was contacted by her sister Jen (using a sending stone) just prior to her death, and Jen mentioned the name Modra. Using the information that you were able to obtain and some
information that Reniss learned, you decided to check out a locale poor house called the Happy Beggar where Modra was reportedly seen.

At the Happy Beggar poor house you located a secret door in the basement that led down a steeply sloped passageway to a natural cave. Althalus tried to stealthily climb down and take a look, and he ended up rolling down and falling prone at the bottom taking damage. To make matters worse, 4 shadow bats were waiting down in the cave below and they surprised him and slashed him up pretty bad. The rest of the party successfully climbed down, except Reniss who also fell down (a clumsy day for both elves and half-elves). The party then had no trouble killing three of the bats and the fourth flew away out the only other passageway exiting the room. After a short rest the party followed after the bat and found it flying around a room that looked like an old temple converted into a storage room. In the room were piles of boxes, a wagon with a cage on it containing 2 shadow hounds, double doors at the opposite side, and a teleportation portal in the center.

The party killed the bat, and then was surprised by a shadar-kai witch and 3 dark creepers (who released the 2 shadow hounds). A tough battle followed were the party found out what it was like to fight shadow hounds that teleport all over, and how it felt to have conditions like blindness, and limited line of sight. At the end of the battle, the wounded witch escaped through the teleportation portal. After another short rest, the party decided to push ahead and entered the double doors. They stumbled upon a dark creeper claiming to be Modra, who tried to bargain with them asking for the brass key or he would “release the wraiths”. The party did not trust Modra’s word and attacked. On his turn, Modra released 5 wraiths and 1 seething wraith (controller type). Unfortunately the party was only able to destroy one wraith in the first round. As Chris would say the wraiths had some “gross” powers and abilities. With an excellent arcane check of 30, Gallindan knew that the 5 wraiths had regeneration 5 (unless they took radiant damage in that turn), vulnerable 5 radiant, immunity to disease and poison, resist 10 necrotic, insubstantial (take ½ damage of every kind), could fly and phase, and on a hit they weakened the target (save ends). The seething wraith had the same basic abilities, but it did not have regeneration, and it had an arua 3 that caused 5 psychic damage and dazed any target that starts it turn in the aura (the aura did not work on turns that it took radiant damage), also it had a melee attack called “touch of chaos” that would cause the target to flee up to their speed and attack the closest ally with a basic attack. Since you had no radiant damage ability in the group, it was like the opening of a big can of whoop ass! Modra ended up being no slouch either. He had a good double attack ability that he used to slice up Reniss. The party executed a brilliant tactical retreat that only left Reniss behind as a casualty. It sounds pretty heartless, but given the situation the party did not have much choice since she was near death and out in front at the time it was decided to retreat. Again, Stratagem’s at-will power “opening shove” played a key part in the battle. He successfully pushed two enemies (by using his action point) and cleared a path for Althalus to retreat. The party ran out of the room and through the teleportation portal that led to a warehouse in the Tradetown district of Overlook. That is where the intrepid band of adventurers left off. I told Chris that it was okay to level Jon up to 6th and meet up with him in Overlook to bring him along for the next session.